


Erased

by FireEye



Category: Final Fantasy I
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-22 04:00:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17052713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireEye/pseuds/FireEye
Summary: In a world where Chaos never reigned therefore the Light Warriors never were, two displaced souls reconnect.





	Erased

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ysavvryl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ysavvryl/gifts).



The address scribbled on a piece of paper in a hasty scrawl led her to a dusky alleyway.  It was here she paused, taking stock of her surroundings – right number, right street.  Wrong side of the river, by most people’s reckoning. 

It had rained earlier, leaving the city streets slick and humid in the late afternoon.  As the sun went down, the damp would turn chill.

Emma licked her lips.

It had taken her the better part of a year to find this place.  A narrow staircase tucked away behind a door that might as well have been ensorcelled, so easy to overlook... if she hadn’t known what she was looking for.  Up the stairs, another nondescript door on the landing, only a tiny business card tucked into the window pronouncing the place _Orin’s Fortune_ indicated it was anything more than a cheap apartment _._.

All things told, it was amazing that the tiny hole in the wall would get any business.

But then, maybe it played the part to people who would look for it.  Magic had all but vanished from the world, replaced with a smoky, intangible mysticism.  An illusion, for people desperate to believe.

Open invitation or no, she knocked anyway.

A thick, hazy aura of incense hit her, along with a wave of nostalgic memory.  The blend was unfamiliar, but the tang of sandalwood brought to fore long nights under the endless cycles of the moon, and droning chants of protection.  But it was the woman who stood in the door that made her breath catch in her chest.

The woman looked her up and down.  An enigmatic smile played upon her lips, most becoming of a fortune teller; yet it was a face too familiar for mere words.

“You traveled a long way,” she observed, simply.

“Yes,” Emma breathed.

They’d traveled together.  Fought together.  Damn near _died_ together.

Yet, if Orin didn’t _remember_...

“Come in, then.”  She stepped back.  “I’ve been expecting you.”

Emma stepped past the threshold.  Orin had already disappeared somewhere deeper within.  It was almost a play of smoke and mirrors; in another life, Emma would have called it _magic_ and left it at that.

It wasn’t expressly a shop, nor was it a space for living.  A table sat in the middle of the sitting room, fit with three chairs, and a cushioned windowsill gave an impressive view of the alley below.  Crystals of every hue were set in a seemingly random pattern throughout the room, amid an equally random selection of books that didn’t fit into the bookshelf in the corner, and packets of dried herbs.  Fresh herbs were hung to dry, tacked to the ceiling.  In the middle of the table, circled with arcane lines of wax, a brass brazier smoldered on an altar, amid an array of lit candles.

The candle fire caught in the facets of the crystals, and seemed to make the light dance.  A constellation of stones on the table caught Emma’s eye; runes in the middle of a casting.

“Tea?”

Orin’s voice came from nowhere.  Wherever she had gone, she wasn’t far; but she wasn’t in sight, either.

“If you knew I was coming, you’d know I didn’t come for tea.”

A beaded curtain parted with a rattle.  Emma had taken it for a decorative wall hanging.  She got a glimpse of a small kitchen beyond before the beads settled back into place.

“Yes, of course.”  Smirking, Orin set two mugs down on the table, taking one of the chairs at random.  “In a life of discipline, there’s never any room for the simpler pleasures of _living_.”

Frowning, Emma seated herself.  Her hands found the cup of tea and she merely held it between them, absorbing the warmth as chamomile steam wisped towards the ceiling to mingle with the incense.

“Don’t tell me you gave it up?”  Orin began sweeping the runes together and palming them into their bag; it did little to clear the clutter on the table.  Her smile softened at Emma’s sour expression.  “Isn’t that why you’re here?  To find something you lost?”

“What am I supposed to say?” Emma asked.  “ _I think we knew each other in another life_?”

“As far as chat-up lines go, that one’s not the worst I’ve ever heard.”  Orin’s smile faded to a touch, and her expression grew _almost_ serious.  “Emma...  It is still _Emma,_ isn’t it?”  A jolt went through her, but Emma nodded.  “It wasn’t some dream or flight of fancy.”

“I know.”

Emma sighed.  Maybe a part of her had been hoping it wasn’t true.  Orin sipped her tea, watching her over the rim of her mug.

“I do tournaments now,” Emma stated.  She raised her own mug for a sip, then thought to add, “The pay is terrible.”

“Since when were you in anything for the money?”

“Never.”

Emma twisted the mug between her hands.  There had been more than two of them on that journey.

“...have you... ever heard anything of the others?”

Orin nodded.

“Of course.  Shea is an accountant, if you can believe it.”

“An _accountant_?”

“ _Mmm_ ,” she confirmed, around a mouthful of chamomile.  Swallowing, she pinched her lip between her teeth.  “Deo... hasn’t fared so well in this new world.”  Seeing Emma’s scowl, she added, “Oh, he’s _safe_ , I assure you.  I made sure of that. It’s just... being cut off from magic... and having the memories of two lives...  You can imagine how that could make one feel... _a little crazy_ , I’m sure.”

Emma could certainly _imagine_.  Her own reality felt unreal at times.  Dreamlike.  Enough to track down a wayward fortune teller so far from home, whom she shouldn’t have even known.

“Which one is real?”

“Whichever one you’re living in.”

Orin reached for her hand, grounding her.  In the past, Emma never would have needed it.  She was the strong one, who never needed anybody.  But that was another lifetime, in a parallel timeline where dragons lived and breathed fire outside of fairy tales.

“Would you like to stay for dinner?  I _sense_...” Orin let it linger for effect, “that we have a lot of catching up to do.”

“Yes,” Emma said.  “I think... I’d like that.”

Orin’s smile returned, full force.  Emma smiled back, faintly, despite herself.

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize for the lens on this one being a little wide. The reshaped world kinda... loses a lot of flavor text in transition. Still, I hope it comes through. :)


End file.
